Four months since it was launched, the Centre’s national portal for transgender persons has so far issued only 277 certificates of identity and identity cards, according to data from the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry.
In a statement, SJ&E Minister of State Rattan Lal Kataria said on Wednesday that he had submitted a reply to Rajya Sabha MP Kumar Ketkar’s question about steps taken towards welfare of the transgender community.
He said the national portal, which was launched on November 25, 2020, was functional in all districts of the country. Through the portal, transgender people can apply for identification certificates issued by district magistrates. The MoS said 1,915 transgender people had applied for the certificates and ID cards, of which 1,695 were found to be valid applications. He added that 277 certificates and cards had been issued, while 1,418 applications were pending and 220 were rejected due to invalid or insufficient documents or being duplicate applications. “Mr. Kataria further stated that as per the Census 2011, there are 4,87,803 persons under the category called ‘Other’,” the statement said.
Mr. Kataria’s statement and Mr. Ketkar’s question were not taken up in the Rajya Sabha as Question Hour was not held on Wednesday.
Asked if the portal had been slow to take off, SJ&E Secretary R. Subrahmanyam told The Hindu: “The system is working well. Progress, is, however slower than expected”.
An expert member of the National Council for Transgender Persons representing NGOs, Aryan Pasha, said the matter would be raised in the next meeting of the council in April. "We have also noticed the slow progress on the portal," he said.
